Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate for the African Action Congress, has reacted to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s assertion that his name has not been uploaded to the portal of the electoral body. In a video posted on Wednesday, Sowore refuted this claim, claiming it was untrue that his name was missing from INEC’s portal. Two political parties’ nominations for the 2023 presidential election had not yet been uploaded, according to earlier statements from INEC. Festus Okoye, National Commissioner of INEC in charge of the Information and Voter Education Committee, named the AAC and the New Nigeria People’s Party as the two parties.
In a statement on Wednesday, Okoye made this clear and reiterated that the political parties still had three days to nominate candidates for the election.
The NNPP’s presidential candidate is a former governor of Kano State named Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, while the AAC’s nominee is the publisher of the Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore. Sowore responded that it was obvious that this had nothing to do with the presidential candidate and his vice. He added that their names had been published in INEC offices around the nation once that was submitted and resolved.
“We are just trying to let you know this is not correct, we have submitted over 60 candidates across Nigeria who are going to be running the election under the banner of the AAC. There is nothing to panic about and we hope INEC will take note of this and ensure that they contact us in advance or check their records before they go out and say the AAC has not submitted names.”
Sowore noted that he was in the INEC headquarters on Wednesday to meet with the director in charge of political parties and claimed that new names of other candidates running for other seats had been provided to the INEC.
“We are the party of the future. We are going to beat all these guys, that is why they are putting all kinds of propaganda out there,” he added.
